David Markson
Encyclopedia
David Markson was an American
novelist, born David Merrill Markson in Albany, New York
. He is the author of several postmodern novels
, including Springer's Progress, Wittgenstein's Mistress
, and Reader's Block. His final book, The Last Novel
, was published in 2007 and received a positive review in the New York Times, which called it "a real tour de force."
Markson's work is characterized by an unconventional approach to narrative and plot. The late writer David Foster Wallace
hailed Wittgenstein's Mistress as "pretty much the high point of experimental fiction in this country." While his early works draw on the modernist tradition
of William Faulkner
and Malcolm Lowry
, his later novels are, in Markson's words, "literally crammed with literary and artistic anecdotes" and "nonlinear, discontinuous, collage-like, an assemblage."
In addition to his output of modernist and postmodernist experimental literature, he has published a book of poetry, a critical study of Malcolm Lowry
, three crime novels, and what's been called an anti-Western.
The movie Dirty Dingus Magee
, starring Frank Sinatra
, is based on Markson's anti-Western, The Ballad of Dingus Magee..
Educated at Union College and Columbia University
, Markson began his writing career as a journalist and book editor, periodically taking up work as a college professor at Columbia University
, Long Island University
, and The New School
.
Though his first novel was published in the late fifties, he didn't gain prominence until the late eighties, when he was over 60 years old, with the publication of Wittgenstein's Mistress. From this point, his fame as an underappreciated writer steadily grew, so much so that he told an interviewer: "One of my friends told me to be careful before I become well known for being unknown."
Markson died in New York City
, in his West Village apartment where, according to the author's literary agent and former wife Elaine Markson, Markson's two children found him on June 4, 2010 in his bed.
Upon David Markson's death, his entire personal library was donated to the Strand Bookstore, his favorite place in the world, according to his wishes. The fact that his books, many of which were covered in notes and checks and various other marginalia, were now available to the public caused a bit of a stir in literary circles in New York City, and for a couple months many Markson Treasure Hunters searched the store for his books. The press picked it up, seeming to fulfill Markson's prediction that he would be more famous after his death than while he was living.
, widely considered his masterpiece, was published in 1988 by Dalkey Archive Press
. Though Markson's original manuscript was rejected fifty-four times, the book, when finally published, met with critical acclaim. It is a highly stylized, experimental novel in the tradition of Beckett
. The novel is mainly a series of statements made in the first person
; the protagonist
is a woman who believes herself to be the last human on earth. Though her statements shift quickly from topic to topic, the topics are often recurrent, and often reference Western cultural icons, ranging from Zeno
to Beethoven
to Willem de Kooning
. Readers familiar with Ludwig Wittgenstein
's Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus
will recognize striking stylistic similarities to that work.
In particular, the New York Times Book Review praised it for "address[ing] formidable philosophic questions with tremendous wit." A decade later, David Foster Wallace
described it as "pretty much the high point of experimental fiction in this country" in an article for Salon entitled "Five direly underappreciated U.S. novels >1960."
. In these novels most of the traditional comforts of the form are absent, as an author-figure closely identified with Markson himself considers the travails of the artist throughout the history of culture. In Reader's Block, he is called Reader; in This Is Not A Novel, Writer; Vanishing Point, Author; in Markson's last novel, The Last Novel, he is known as Novelist. Markson described the action of these novels: "I have characters sitting alone in a bedroom with a head full of everything he’s ever read." His working process involved "scribbling the notes on three-by-five-inch index cards" and collecting them in "shoebox tops" until they were ready to be put "into manuscript form." Markson hoped that these four novels might eventually be published together in one volume.
The first in the “personal genre”, Reader's Block, was published by Dalkey Archive Press in 1996. It was followed by This Is Not A Novel (Counterpoint, 2001), Vanishing Point (Shoemaker & Hoard, 2004) and The Last Novel (Shoemaker & Hoard, 2007). Of Reader's Block, fellow writer and friend Kurt Vonnegut wrote, "David shouldn’t thank Fate for letting him write such a good book in a time when large numbers of people could no longer be wowed by a novel, no matter how excellent."
The second book, This Is Not A Novel, describes itself in a number of terms:
In This Is Not A Novel, the Writer character states, "A novel with no intimation of story whatsoever, Writer would like to contrive." " Reader's Block likewise calls itself "a novel of intellectual reference and allusion, so to speak minus much of the novel." Rather than consisting of a specific plot, they can be said to be composed of "an intellectual ragpicker's collection of cultural detritus."" The seemingly-random set of quotes, ideas and nuggets of information about the lives of various literary, artistic and historical figures cohere to form a new kind of novel.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
novelist, born David Merrill Markson in Albany, New York
Albany, New York
Albany is the capital city of the U.S. state of New York, the seat of Albany County, and the central city of New York's Capital District. Roughly north of New York City, Albany sits on the west bank of the Hudson River, about south of its confluence with the Mohawk River...
. He is the author of several postmodern novels
Postmodern literature
The term Postmodern literature is used to describe certain characteristics of post–World War II literature and a reaction against Enlightenment ideas implicit in Modernist literature.Postmodern literature, like postmodernism as a whole, is hard to define and there is little agreement on the exact...
, including Springer's Progress, Wittgenstein's Mistress
Wittgenstein's Mistress
Wittgenstein's Mistress is a novel by David Markson. It is a highly stylized, experimental novel in the tradition of Beckett. The novel is mainly a series of statements made in the first person; the protagonist is a woman who believes herself to be the last human on earth...
, and Reader's Block. His final book, The Last Novel
The Last Novel
The Last Novel is a novel by David Markson. Following in the tradition of his earlier work such as This is Not a Novel, Springer's Progress, and Wittgenstein's Mistress the novel is largely composed of obscure anecdotes about authors, artists, theorists, etc...
, was published in 2007 and received a positive review in the New York Times, which called it "a real tour de force."
Markson's work is characterized by an unconventional approach to narrative and plot. The late writer David Foster Wallace
David Foster Wallace
David Foster Wallace was an American author of novels, essays, and short stories, and a professor at Pomona College in Claremont, California...
hailed Wittgenstein's Mistress as "pretty much the high point of experimental fiction in this country." While his early works draw on the modernist tradition
Modernist literature
Modernist literature is sub-genre of Modernism, a predominantly European movement beginning in the early 20th century that was characterized by a self-conscious break with traditional aesthetic forms...
of William Faulkner
William Faulkner
William Cuthbert Faulkner was an American writer from Oxford, Mississippi. Faulkner worked in a variety of media; he wrote novels, short stories, a play, poetry, essays and screenplays during his career...
and Malcolm Lowry
Malcolm Lowry
Clarence Malcolm Lowry was an English poet and novelist who was best known for his novel Under the Volcano, which was voted No. 11 in the Modern Library 100 Best Novels list.-Biography:...
, his later novels are, in Markson's words, "literally crammed with literary and artistic anecdotes" and "nonlinear, discontinuous, collage-like, an assemblage."
In addition to his output of modernist and postmodernist experimental literature, he has published a book of poetry, a critical study of Malcolm Lowry
Malcolm Lowry
Clarence Malcolm Lowry was an English poet and novelist who was best known for his novel Under the Volcano, which was voted No. 11 in the Modern Library 100 Best Novels list.-Biography:...
, three crime novels, and what's been called an anti-Western.
The movie Dirty Dingus Magee
Dirty Dingus Magee
Dirty Dingus Magee is a comic 1970 anti-western film starring Frank Sinatra as the title outlaw and George Kennedy as a sheriff out to capture him...
, starring Frank Sinatra
Frank Sinatra
Francis Albert "Frank" Sinatra was an American singer and actor.Beginning his musical career in the swing era with Harry James and Tommy Dorsey, Sinatra became an unprecedentedly successful solo artist in the early to mid-1940s, after being signed to Columbia Records in 1943. Being the idol of the...
, is based on Markson's anti-Western, The Ballad of Dingus Magee..
Biography
David Merrill Markson was born in Albany, NY, on December 20, 1927.Educated at Union College and Columbia University
Columbia University
Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...
, Markson began his writing career as a journalist and book editor, periodically taking up work as a college professor at Columbia University
Columbia University
Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...
, Long Island University
Long Island University
Long Island University is a private, coeducational, nonsectarian institution of higher education in the U.S. state of New York.-History:...
, and The New School
The New School
The New School is a university in New York City, located mostly in Greenwich Village. From its founding in 1919 by progressive New York academics, and for most of its history, the university was known as the New School for Social Research. Between 1997 and 2005 it was known as New School University...
.
Though his first novel was published in the late fifties, he didn't gain prominence until the late eighties, when he was over 60 years old, with the publication of Wittgenstein's Mistress. From this point, his fame as an underappreciated writer steadily grew, so much so that he told an interviewer: "One of my friends told me to be careful before I become well known for being unknown."
Markson died in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
, in his West Village apartment where, according to the author's literary agent and former wife Elaine Markson, Markson's two children found him on June 4, 2010 in his bed.
Upon David Markson's death, his entire personal library was donated to the Strand Bookstore, his favorite place in the world, according to his wishes. The fact that his books, many of which were covered in notes and checks and various other marginalia, were now available to the public caused a bit of a stir in literary circles in New York City, and for a couple months many Markson Treasure Hunters searched the store for his books. The press picked it up, seeming to fulfill Markson's prediction that he would be more famous after his death than while he was living.
Wittgenstein's Mistress
Wittgenstein's MistressWittgenstein's Mistress
Wittgenstein's Mistress is a novel by David Markson. It is a highly stylized, experimental novel in the tradition of Beckett. The novel is mainly a series of statements made in the first person; the protagonist is a woman who believes herself to be the last human on earth...
, widely considered his masterpiece, was published in 1988 by Dalkey Archive Press
Dalkey Archive Press
Dalkey Archive Press is a publisher of fiction, poetry, and literary criticism in Illinois in the United States, specializing in the publication or republication of lesser known, often avant-garde works...
. Though Markson's original manuscript was rejected fifty-four times, the book, when finally published, met with critical acclaim. It is a highly stylized, experimental novel in the tradition of Beckett
Samuel Beckett
Samuel Barclay Beckett was an Irish avant-garde novelist, playwright, theatre director, and poet. He wrote both in English and French. His work offers a bleak, tragicomic outlook on human nature, often coupled with black comedy and gallows humour.Beckett is widely regarded as among the most...
. The novel is mainly a series of statements made in the first person
First-person narrative
First-person point of view is a narrative mode where a story is narrated by one character at a time, speaking for and about themselves. First-person narrative may be singular, plural or multiple as well as being an authoritative, reliable or deceptive "voice" and represents point of view in the...
; the protagonist
Protagonist
A protagonist is the main character of a literary, theatrical, cinematic, or musical narrative, around whom the events of the narrative's plot revolve and with whom the audience is intended to most identify...
is a woman who believes herself to be the last human on earth. Though her statements shift quickly from topic to topic, the topics are often recurrent, and often reference Western cultural icons, ranging from Zeno
Zeno of Elea
Zeno of Elea was a pre-Socratic Greek philosopher of southern Italy and a member of the Eleatic School founded by Parmenides. Aristotle called him the inventor of the dialectic. He is best known for his paradoxes, which Bertrand Russell has described as "immeasurably subtle and profound".- Life...
to Beethoven
Ludwig van Beethoven
Ludwig van Beethoven was a German composer and pianist. A crucial figure in the transition between the Classical and Romantic eras in Western art music, he remains one of the most famous and influential composers of all time.Born in Bonn, then the capital of the Electorate of Cologne and part of...
to Willem de Kooning
Willem de Kooning
Willem de Kooning was a Dutch American abstract expressionist artist who was born in Rotterdam, the Netherlands....
. Readers familiar with Ludwig Wittgenstein
Ludwig Wittgenstein
Ludwig Josef Johann Wittgenstein was an Austrian philosopher who worked primarily in logic, the philosophy of mathematics, the philosophy of mind, and the philosophy of language. He was professor in philosophy at the University of Cambridge from 1939 until 1947...
's Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus
Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus
The Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus is the only book-length philosophical work published by the Austrian philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein in his lifetime. It was an ambitious project: to identify the relationship between language and reality and to define the limits of science...
will recognize striking stylistic similarities to that work.
In particular, the New York Times Book Review praised it for "address[ing] formidable philosophic questions with tremendous wit." A decade later, David Foster Wallace
David Foster Wallace
David Foster Wallace was an American author of novels, essays, and short stories, and a professor at Pomona College in Claremont, California...
described it as "pretty much the high point of experimental fiction in this country" in an article for Salon entitled "Five direly underappreciated U.S. novels >1960."
Late novels
Markson's late works further refine the allusive, minimalist style of Wittgenstein's MistressWittgenstein's Mistress
Wittgenstein's Mistress is a novel by David Markson. It is a highly stylized, experimental novel in the tradition of Beckett. The novel is mainly a series of statements made in the first person; the protagonist is a woman who believes herself to be the last human on earth...
. In these novels most of the traditional comforts of the form are absent, as an author-figure closely identified with Markson himself considers the travails of the artist throughout the history of culture. In Reader's Block, he is called Reader; in This Is Not A Novel, Writer; Vanishing Point, Author; in Markson's last novel, The Last Novel, he is known as Novelist. Markson described the action of these novels: "I have characters sitting alone in a bedroom with a head full of everything he’s ever read." His working process involved "scribbling the notes on three-by-five-inch index cards" and collecting them in "shoebox tops" until they were ready to be put "into manuscript form." Markson hoped that these four novels might eventually be published together in one volume.
The first in the “personal genre”, Reader's Block, was published by Dalkey Archive Press in 1996. It was followed by This Is Not A Novel (Counterpoint, 2001), Vanishing Point (Shoemaker & Hoard, 2004) and The Last Novel (Shoemaker & Hoard, 2007). Of Reader's Block, fellow writer and friend Kurt Vonnegut wrote, "David shouldn’t thank Fate for letting him write such a good book in a time when large numbers of people could no longer be wowed by a novel, no matter how excellent."
The second book, This Is Not A Novel, describes itself in a number of terms:
- "A novel"
- "An epic poem"
- "A sequence of cantos awaiting numbering"
- "A mural of sorts"
- "An autobiography"
- "A continued heap of riddles"
- "A polyphonic opera of a kind"
- "A disquisition on the maladies of the life of art"
- "An ersatz prose alternative to The Waste LandThe Waste LandThe Waste Land[A] is a 434-line[B] modernist poem by T. S. Eliot published in 1922. It has been called "one of the most important poems of the 20th century." Despite the poem's obscurity—its shifts between satire and prophecy, its abrupt and unannounced changes of speaker, location and time, its...
" - "A treatise on the nature of man"
- "An assemblage [nonlinear, discontinuous, collage-like]"
- "A contemporary variant on [The Egyptian Book of the Dead]"
- "A kind of verbal fugue"
- "A classic tragedy [in many ways]"
- "A volume entitled 'Writer's Block'"
- "A comedy of a sort"
- "His synthetic personal Finnegans WakeFinnegans WakeFinnegans Wake is a novel by Irish author James Joyce, significant for its experimental style and resulting reputation as one of the most difficult works of fiction in the English language. Written in Paris over a period of seventeen years, and published in 1939, two years before the author's...
" - "Nothing more than a fundamentally recognizable genre all the while"
- "Nothing more or less than a read"
- "An unconventional, generally melancholy though sometimes even playful now-ending read"
In This Is Not A Novel, the Writer character states, "A novel with no intimation of story whatsoever, Writer would like to contrive." " Reader's Block likewise calls itself "a novel of intellectual reference and allusion, so to speak minus much of the novel." Rather than consisting of a specific plot, they can be said to be composed of "an intellectual ragpicker's collection of cultural detritus."" The seemingly-random set of quotes, ideas and nuggets of information about the lives of various literary, artistic and historical figures cohere to form a new kind of novel.
Further reading
- Francoise Palleau-Papin, Ceci n'est pas une tragédie. L'écriture de David Markson. ENS Editions, 2007. ISBN 978-2-84788-106-6
External links
- Biography and critical overview from American Writers Supplement XVII
- Introduction and Bibliography on David Markson
- Reading Markson Reading, a look at the marginalia in David Markson's personal library
- Bookslut.com Interview with David Markson
- Context interview with David Markson
- Review of This is Not a Novel
- David Markson, Postmodern Experimental Novelist, Is Dead at 82 obituary from The New York TimesThe New York TimesThe New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
published June 7, 2010 - "Address Unknown: David Markson, 1927-2010" in memoriam from n+1N+1n+1 is a New York–based American literary magazine that publishes social criticism, political commentary, essays, art, poetry, book reviews, and short fiction. It is published three times each year, and content is published on several times each week...
This article was published on guardian.co.uk at 18.36 BST on Monday 14 June 2010. A version appeared on p35 of the Main section of the Guardian on Tuesday 15 June 2010. This article appeared in the online version of Intelligent Life (Summer 2010).